Israel‘s prime minister vowed to strike back at aggressors as tensions in the Middle East intensified yesterday.
Benjamin Netanyahu warned, ‘Whoever harms us, we will harm them’ after Israel exchanged fire with militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a series of pre-dawn airstrikes, targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers, following information that the Iranian-backed terror organisation planned to take out key Israeli intelligence bases.
Hezbollah then launched more than 300 rockets, missiles and drones targeting military facilities in northern Israel – aggression it chillingly described as ‘phase one’ of a multi-stage attack.
It said it was acting in response to the killing of Fouad Shukur, its acting chief of staff, in an airstrike in Beirut last month.
An explosion takes place as Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Zibqin, Lebanon, August 25, 2024
Hezbollah then launched more than 300 rockets, missiles and drones targeting military facilities in northern Israel on Sunday. Pictured is a Hezbollah drone hitting a highway in northern Israel
Hezbollah described Sunday’s aggression as ‘phase one’ of a multi-stage attack. Pictured is an Israeli house that was apparently hit by a Hezbollah strike
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he had spoken to Israeli minister for strategic affairs Ron Dermer and ‘reiterated the UK’s support for Israel’s security, the importance of restraint, the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages’.
Mr Lammy, who has been heavily involved in Western diplomatic efforts to secure an end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, said: ‘Further escalation in the Middle East must be avoided at all costs.’
Israeli sources said the pre-emptive strike ‘prevented damage and possibly serious losses’ of life.
One told the Mail: ‘The intent of Hezbollah was to target intelligence bases such as the Mossad headquarters. They were supposed to strike with precision missiles. The pre-emptive attack of the Israeli Air Force destroyed the Hezbollah response.’ A second source added: ‘We have no desire for a regional war at the moment, we want to contain the attack as much as possible, however we will take every measure to protect Israel’s citizens.’
But Mr Netanyahu warned further violence would be met with a similar response. He said: ‘The IDF has eliminated thousands of rockets that were aimed at northern Israel. It is thwarting many other threats and is taking very strong action – both defensively and offensively.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a state memorial ceremony for Zeev Jabotinsky earlier this month. Netanyahu on Sunday vowed to strike back at aggressors as tensions in the Middle East intensified
An image grab taken from Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV on June 19, 2024, shows Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah giving a televised address from an undisclosed location in Lebanon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Tel Aviv will ‘harm whoever harms us’ as the Middle East teeters on the brink of all-out war
This photo taken from a position in northern Israel shows an Israeli Air Force fighter jet firing flares as it flies to intercept a hostile aircraft that launched from Lebanon over the border area with south Lebanon on August 25, 2024
One video, reportedly taken in the city of Acre, around 11 miles from the border with Lebanon, showed what appeared to be a family’s home partially destroyed by a Hezbollah missile
Rockets fired from southern Lebanon are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system over the Upper Galilee region in northern Israel on August 23, 2024
‘We are determined to do everything to defend our country, to return the residents of the north securely to their homes and to continue upholding a simple rule: Whoever harms us – we will harm them.’
And in a further warning, directed at Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah and the Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, he added: ‘Nasrallah in Beirut, and Khamenei in Tehran need to know this is another step on the way to changing the situation in the north and returning our citizens safely to their homes.
‘And I repeat: This is not the end of the story.’
In a televised address, Nasrallah said that the group had been able to carry out its attack ‘as planned’, denying statements by the Israeli military that its pre-emptive strikes had stopped a wider attack.
He said officials would assess the impact of its rocket and drone attack before determining whether it would carry out further operations.
Nasrallah said the group had intentionally refrained from targeting civilians or public infrastructure, including Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
In a televised address, he said: ‘If the result is not enough, then we retain the right to respond another time.’
It comes barely a fortnight after Sir Keir Starmer urged the new Iranian president to refrain from attacking Israel.
This photo taken from a position in northern Israel shows a Hezbollah UAV intercepted by Israeli air forces over north IsraelÂ
Smoke billows from an area targeted by an Israeli airstrike between the southern Lebanese border villages of Zibqin and Yater
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (second right) are pictured at a military base in Tel Aviv on Sunday amid plans for a large-scale attack
Israeli military Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi directs an operation, at a location given as Tel Aviv, Israel, in this screen grab from video released August 25, 2024
An Israeli fighter jet ejects flares over an area near the Lebanon-Israel border
The attack came as Egypt hosts a new round of talks aimed at ending Israel’s war against Hamas, now in its 11th month
A view shows smoke on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel, as a man stands at a beach in Tyre, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces
An Israeli house was hit as Hezbollah said it had fired more than 320 rockets towards Israel
Smoke rises from the southern Lebanese town of Khiam, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces
Smoke and fire on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel, after Israel said it had noted armed group Hezbollah preparing to attack Israel and had carried out pre-emptive strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon
In the first contact between a UK prime minister and their Iranian counterpart since March 2021, Sir Keir warned Masoud Pezeshkian of ‘a serious risk of miscalculation’. A No 10 spokesman said Sir Keir ‘called on Iran to refrain from attacking Israel, adding that war was not in anyone’s interests’.
Mr Pezeshkian, who has been in office for a month, is considered a reformist, but vowed to make Israel ‘regret’ an air strike on Tehran that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Yesterday’s offensive means Hezbollah have fired more than 7,000 rockets at Israel since it decided to support Hamas’s October 7 atrocities.
The fresh attacks came as high-level talks between Israel and Hamas continue in Egypt, aimed at brokering a truce.
Last night Hamas said it rejected unspecified new Israeli conditions for a ceasefire and said talk of an imminent deal was false.
A black-and-white image shows a blast and smoke rising from what the Israeli military said was a strike at a location given as southern Lebanon
The attack came as Egypt hosts a new round of talks aimed at ending Israel’s war against Hamas, now in its 11th month
Smoke billows from an area targeted by an Israeli airstrike on the southerm Lebanese village of Khiam on August 25, 2024
